20 Strong: Nemesis
20 Strong: Nemesis Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Winning & Losing
To win Nemesis, you must earn objective points equal to or greater than what is required by the difficulty rank (see Difficulty Rankings). You can win even if your Health is reduced below 1. If multiple heroes earn the required number of objective points, all of those heroes share in the victory.
If you do not earn enough objective points, you lose.
There is no endgame in Nemesis. Instead, the game ends when the dial reaches 0 or when all heroes have either escaped or been defeated.
Setup
- Dized. The first time you play, consider the interactive Dized tutorial! It walks you through Nemesis's setup and rules while you play. Scan the code on p. 2.
- Create the dice pool. Set the 17 unit dice in your shared dice pool.
- Choose a first player. Randomly select a first player and place the Noise Card in front of them. Set the dial on the chip to 10 and place it at Noise Level: 0 on the standard side of the Noise Card.
- Choose a difficulty rank. Select which difficulty rank you want to play (see Difficulty Rankings). This determines how many objective points you need to earn to win the game.
- Choose a hero. Starting with the first player and continuing clockwise, each player chooses a hero. Additionally, each player chooses one of the three stat dice to represent their hero on the ship. Regardless of the icon on the chosen die, it is used to track that hero's Health. Then, each player takes a Room Reference and an Action Reference. These are found on the backs of the hero cards. Return the remaining hero cards to the box.
- Gain objectives. Find all of the objective cards matching your current player count (see Objective Cards). Shuffle them and deal two face-down to each player. You can look at yours, but you cannot reveal them to other players. Return all remaining objective cards to the box.
- Prepare the ship. Shuffle all of the room cards and place them face-down in a 5x4 grid. Flip over the card with "Start" on its back to reveal the Cryo Chamber. Then, each player places their assigned stat die in this room, set to their hero's starting Health.
- Prepare the Alien and Item Decks. Shuffle the alien cards, military item cards, and technical item cards into separate decks. Then, place them as shown in the play reference, along with the face-up Antidote item, which makes up the Crafted Item Deck.
Heroes & Stats
You play as a hero. Your hero defines your starting stats and grants a unique ability.
Three of the 20 Strong dice are gray stat dice. They track your stats' values as they increase and decrease throughout play.
- Health tracks how much damage you can take before you lose.
- Strategy indicates...
- how many times you can go through the Strategy phase each round.
- how many items of each type (military, technical, and crafted) you can have in your inventory at once.
- Recovery indicates how many exhausted dice you can get back each round.
Example Hero Card: Scout
Reconnaissance: When taking move actions, up to two dice you commit may be from the exhausted area. When resolving dice during a move action, you may ignore one rolled miss for the purposes of increasing noise.
Starting stats: Health 3, Strategy 2, Recovery 3.
Stat dice are never rolled. They cannot go below 1 (except Health, which results in the hero being defeated) or above 6.
In Nemesis, the only stat tracked with a die is your Health as you suffer damage or heal.
Stat dice are used to physically represent the heroes as they move around the ship. In cooperative games, each stat die represents a different hero.
Your starting Health is your max Health. Some items can increase your max Health, but you cannot go above your max Health. Your current Health does not change upon gaining or losing the item, making it possible for your Health to end up higher than your max value.
Your Strategy and Recovery stats are static and reflected by the values shown on your hero card.
Some items can modify your Strategy or Recovery, but that stat is only altered for the duration of that effect. This is not tracked with the stat dice.
Enemies
Enemies are your primary antagonists in 20 Strong. They have Health to defeat and Damage to avoid.
Each enemy that activates may cause additional enemies to activate (see Noise & Activating Enemies). Some have enemy effects to consider in the Strategy and Resolve phases (see Enemy Effects).
In Nemesis, enemies attack when they are in the same room as a hero and pursue when they are not. Enemies do not provide rewards when you defeat them.
Enemies in Nemesis roll dice, so each attack is variable and the enemy may even miss (see Suffer Damage Step).
Unit Dice
The 17 unit dice come in red, purple, blue, green, and yellow. Each color has a mix of hit sides (basic hits and crits) and misses (except red, which has no misses).
A basic hit deals 1 damage. A crit deals 2 damage (though it is still considered to be one hit). One hit side on each die is a crit.
Each die face shows one of three results: a miss, a basic hit, or a crit. The number of pips on each icon's ring shows how many hit sides that die has.
| Color | Yellow | Green | Blue | Purple | Red |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hits | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Power | Weaker | Stronger |
Dice States
- Ready: Dice in the pool available to be used.
- Exhausted: Dice removed from the dice pool or active area. These can be recovered.
- Banished: Dice removed by an in-game effect. These cannot be recovered.
- Committed: Dice in the active area, whether applied or not.
- Returned: Dice moved from the active area to the dice pool.
- Recovered: Dice moved from the exhausted area to the dice pool.
- Applied: Dice placed on cards or used for their results when resolving actions.
Round Overview
20 Strong is played in rounds. Each round has two parts: Activation and Engagement. Each part has a series of phases or steps.
Rounds continue until the dial reaches 0 or all heroes have either escaped or been defeated.
In multiplayer gameplay, players take turns going through a round. The first player resolves a full round, then the next player clockwise resolves the next round, and so on.
Activation
- Decrease the dial by 1 (first player only)
- Check for the Self-Destruct Sequence
- Recover Dice
Engagement
- Take up to 4 actions (move, attack, salvage, trade, other)
- Strategy Phase for all basic actions:
- Commit Dice
- Roll Dice
- Apply Dice (and increase noise)
- Repeat if your Strategy allows
- Strategy Phase for all basic actions:
- Resolve Phase
- Suffer Damage
- After Effects
- Exhaust Dice
- Enemies move 2 rooms toward the closest hero
- Cleanup
- Discard defeated enemies
- Roll for Noise
Activation
Decrease the Dial
If you are the first player, you must decrease the dial by 1. Skip this step on your first turn of the game. If the dial reaches 0, the game immediately ends and all remaining heroes are defeated.
Self-Destruct Sequence
When the dial ticks down to player count + difficulty rank, the Self-Destruct Sequence activates. Flip the Noise Card to its opposite side, where the maximum noise level is 4 instead of 5. Set noise to the same level it was prior to flipping. If this would set it to 5, set it to 0, and deploy an enemy to the room occupied by the current hero.
If enemies are still in the Nest Stack (see The Nest Stack), deploy them to the Cryo Chamber, even if it is inactive.
Recover Dice
Choose a number of exhausted dice up to your current Recovery. Move them from the exhausted area to the dice pool.
Engagement
Engagement consists of two phases: the Strategy phase, where you commit, roll, and apply dice; and the Resolve phase, where you suffer damage and negative effects, exhaust dice, and clean up before the next round.
In Nemesis, there is one major exception to keep in mind as you play: Each player takes up to four actions and performs the Strategy phase individually for each action.
Strategy Phase
The Strategy phase has three steps:
Commit Dice Step
Select any number and combination of dice from the dice pool, and place them in the active area. All dice in the active area, applied or not, are considered to be committed.
- In Nemesis, the area where you roll dice and the enemies themselves are considered to be in the active area.
Roll Dice Step
Roll all of the dice in the active area at once. Items cannot be used in this step.
Apply Dice Step
Apply hits to active enemies to deal damage to them.
- Apply hits one at a time, in any order, by placing the die on the enemy.
- Each time you apply a die, check to see if that enemy is defeated, which happens when the hits assigned to it meet or exceed its Health. Any During effects on an enemy end immediately when it is defeated (see Enemy Effects).
- When an enemy is defeated, rotate it 90° to track its state.
- You may continue to apply hits to enemies after they have been defeated if you wish.
- You are not required to apply all rolled hits.
- Misses cannot be applied.
- Crits increase noise by 1 when applied.
In Nemesis, some actions require you to apply hits, but not to enemies. These hits do not deal damage.
Repeating the Strategy Phase
After the Apply Dice step, you may repeat the Strategy phase. The total number of times you may go through the phase (including the first) cannot exceed your Strategy.
When you repeat the Strategy phase, you may commit additional dice from the dice pool, adding them to any unapplied dice still in your active area. Then, roll all unapplied dice and apply any hit results you wish.
Keep in mind that all remaining committed dice, applied or not, will be exhausted later in the round.
Noise & Activating Enemies
Enemies in Nemesis are activated when you make too much noise.
Noise increases whenever a crit is applied during an action or rolled as part of another game effect (for example, a noise check or enemy attack). If multiple crits are applied at the same time, add them up and increase noise by the total.
If noise ever exceeds the maximum Noise Level, reset it to 0 and do not increase it any further for that action or effect. Then, activate an enemy.
To activate an enemy, take one enemy card from the top of the Alien Deck and place it in the current hero's room after the action is resolved.
- If the current hero has been defeated, the enemy is placed in the last room the player was in.
- If the current hero escaped in an escape pod, the enemy is placed in the last room the hero was in that is still in play.
If the activated enemy has an additional-enemies icon, repeat the process, activating one enemy at a time. Any During and Special effects apply immediately (see Enemy Effects). If any of the additional enemies also have that icon, those must be resolved as well.
Enemy Effects
There are three types of enemy effects in 20 Strong.
- During effects have an ongoing impact that applies from the time the enemy becomes active until it is defeated.
- After effects trigger in the Resolve phase. They trigger even if the enemy is defeated.
- Special effects have unique timing and length of impact, as specified in the effect's text. They trigger even if the enemy is defeated.
Actions
Heroes may resolve up to four actions during Engagement, most of which require resolving a Strategy phase. The same action can be repeated multiple times in the same Engagement.
Basic actions are move, attack, salvage, and trade. When resolving basic actions (except for the trade action), you may go through the Strategy phase a number of times equal to your Strategy. Crits rolled during basic actions do not increase noise until they are applied, allowing you to re-roll them to avoid increasing noise.
Other actions are available in rooms, with items, or through hero abilities.
Move
The maximum number of dice you can commit for this action is equal to your max Health.
After rolling, you must either apply all hits and move up to the number of hits rolled, or repeat the Strategy phase if your Strategy allows.
- All movement is between orthogonally adjacent rooms.
- Rooms can be moved into whether they are active (face-up) or inactive (face-down).
- Each applied crit increases noise, even if you do not use that result for movement.
- If you repeat the Strategy phase, you must re-roll all dice you have committed.
After moving, exhaust all dice rolled. Then, if you are in an inactive room, you may look at the room and choose whether to activate it, provided you can fulfill one of its activation requirements (see Rooms).
You cannot look at or choose to activate an inactive room unless you take a move action to do so. Because of this, you may wish to take a move action without rolling any dice or moving between rooms.
Opportunity Attack
When a hero chooses to leave a room, all enemies in that room perform an opportunity attack against that hero, in the order of the hero's choice. When resolving an opportunity attack, enemies roll the leftmost die listed for their Damage (see Suffer Damage Step).
If that die is unavailable, they roll the next available die. After resolving the attacks, heroes can finish their move action.
Attack
The maximum number of dice you can commit for this action is equal to your max Health.
After rolling, you may apply hits to any enemies in the same room as you.
Dice applied to enemies in previous attack actions this turn do not count against the number of dice you can commit for a new attack action.
After attacking, exhaust all unapplied dice. Dice applied to enemies will not exhaust until the Exhaust Dice step. Unapplied crits do not increase noise.
Salvage
You can salvage in any room, even if it is inactive. To salvage, you must commit all ready dice.
After rolling, you must either apply all of the hits rolled or repeat the Strategy phase.
- Regardless of the rolled result, gain the top item from the room's item stack (see Rooms), if it has one.
- You may also recover one exhausted die for each crit applied. Crits still increase noise even if you do not use them to recover exhausted dice.
After salvaging, return all rolled dice. Do not exhaust them.
Trade
If you are in the same room as another hero, you can trade any number of items with them. A hero is not required to give an item in order for a trade to take place, but both players must agree on what is being traded before it is resolved. You do not resolve Strategy phases during trade actions.
Multi-use items retain their remaining uses when traded (see Items).
Other Actions
Some rooms, items, and hero abilities grant other actions.
In order to take a room action, the room must be active, and you must be occupying it.
In order to take an item action, the item must be in your inventory. Using an item's effect is only an action if specified by the effect.
You cannot repeat the Strategy phase for these other actions, even if dice are rolled.
Resolve Phase
Suffer Damage Step
If an enemy is in the same room as the current hero, it rolls dice based on its Damage and reduces the current hero's Health by the damage rolled. Crits deal only 1 damage but still increase noise by 1. Only enemies in the same room as the current hero deal damage in this step.
Enemies deal their damage individually, in the order of the current player's choosing.
After Effects Step
All After effects in the active area (including those on defeated enemies) are resolved one at a time, in the order of your choice.
Exhaust Dice Step
Move all dice applied to enemies to the exhausted area.
Note: Actions often require you to exhaust dice in the Strategy phase. Dice exhausted then or in the Exhaust Dice Step are exhausted in the same way.
Enemies Move Step
Any enemies not in a room with a hero move up to two rooms toward the hero closest to them. If an enemy has multiple move options, the current hero decides how the enemy moves.
Cleanup Step
Discard all defeated enemies and shuffle them back into the Alien Deck.
Roll for Noise Step
Roll the strongest exhausted die. On a miss, do not increase noise. On a hit, increase noise by 1. On a crit, increase it by 2.
Enemies can be activated in this step, but they do not attack or move this round.
After the Resolve phase, begin the next player's turn with Activation.
Endgame
Most 20 Strong games end in an endgame, but Nemesis does not. Instead, the game ends when the dial reaches 0 or when all heroes have either escaped or been defeated.
Escape or Defeat
If a hero escapes or is defeated, remove their stat die from the ship but finish the round, skipping any remaining actions.
- Skip that player's turn for the rest of the game.
- If the first player escapes or is defeated, the next clockwise player becomes the new first player.
- Do not decrease the dial if the previous first player already decreased it that round.
Objective Cards
Each objective card indicates which player count it is used for. A "+" means it is used with that player count and higher.
When a hero escapes, is defeated, or when the Self-Destruct Sequence initiates, they must choose one of their two objective cards to discard.
Each objective is worth a number of points based on how challenging it is. Remember that if you fail to escape, you can still win if you earn enough objective points. Objective cards also have a negative point condition if a hero is defeated.
Additional Rules
The following pages feature rules that are important but exist outside the normal flow of gameplay.
Rooms
Heroes can salvage items in rooms, and each room has a unique effect or action for heroes to take advantage of. Except for the Cryo Chamber, all rooms start inactive.
Heroes ending a move action in an inactive room may look at the room and choose whether to activate it. To activate a room, one of the room's activation requirements must be met.
- If a hero activates a room, it is placed face-up and becomes active.
- If a hero cannot activate a room (or chooses not to), the room remains inactive.
- If a hero moves into an inactive room through an effect other than a move action, they cannot look at or activate that room.
- The first time a room is activated, place item cards face-down under the room, matching the number and type at the top of the room card. This creates an item stack.
- When a room is deactivated, do not discard its item stack.
- Rotate the card 180° to signal a room has already been activated and does not get a new item stack upon re-activation.
Noise Check
If a room requires a hero to make a noise check, they must roll the listed dice to activate the room. The room activates regardless of the rolled result, and any crits increase noise. Noise increased for this effect is separate from any noise generated through a move action.
Generators
There are three Generator rooms, and some room actions require Generators to be active. The number of Generator icons indicates how many Generators must be active for a hero to take that room action.
The Nest Stack
The location of the Nest room is unknown. If you must deploy enemies to the Nest while it is inactive, deploy enemies face-down to the Nest Stack instead. Do not look at the front of an enemy card before deploying it to the Nest Stack.
When the Nest is revealed, the enemies in the Nest Stack deploy to the Nest. If the Nest has been removed from play, enemies cannot be deployed to the Nest Stack.
If the Self-Destruct Sequence activates while there are enemies in the Nest Stack, they immediately deploy to the Cryo Chamber, even if it is inactive.
Hidden Information
Mistrust and chaos are prevalent throughout the crew of the Nemesis. Players can talk (and lie) about any of the contents of the cards. However, a player cannot show the contents of a face-down card to other players. When a player looks at a room card, they do not show it to the other players unless they choose to activate it.
Inventory items remain face-up throughout play and are not hidden information.
Dice for Actions & Effects
For basic actions, dice must come from the dice pool as normal.
For other actions, enemy attacks (including opportunity attacks), and any other dice rolls, dice are pulled from the exhausted area if possible.
- Any required dice not in the exhausted area are pulled from the dice pool.
- If some dice are still not available (currently applied to enemies or banished), the action or effect cannot be resolved. The one exception to this is enemy attacks, which use as many of their required dice as possible.
After rolling, all rolled dice are exhausted.
Items
Nemesis has three different item decks: Military, Technical, and Crafted.
In Nemesis, your Strategy determines how many items of each type (military, technical, and crafted) can be in your inventory at once.
In 20 Strong, items are used either for one-time effects or as ongoing abilities.
Single-use items can be used once and are then discarded.
Ongoing items have a persistent effect that lasts until the end of the game or until the item is discarded.
Nemesis also features Multi-use items. These can be used a number of times as indicated at the top of their card.
After using a Multi-use item, rotate the card counter-clockwise. If this reduces the remaining uses to 0, the item is discarded.
Unless they specify timing, items can be used at any time except in the Roll Dice step.
You may discard items at any time.
Items are gained one at a time. You cannot gain an item if you do not have room in your inventory. However, you may use or discard items you already have at this time to make room in your inventory. You cannot use items you have yet to gain.
Applied Dice
Applied dice are exhausted when the cards they are applied to are discarded, banished, or otherwise removed.
Effects that change the damage a die deals also impact dice already applied.
Defeated enemies remain defeated regardless of changing damage effects.
Discarding & Banishing
Discarding
Discard items to their discard piles. Discard the Antidote back to its position from setup.
Discarded enemies are shuffled back into the Alien Deck.
If you ever need to draw from an empty item deck, shuffle its discard and make a new deck before drawing.
Room-specific item stacks are not replenished, and you can no longer gain items from those rooms once their stacks are empty.
Banishing
When banished, dice and cards are removed from the game and can no longer be used, unless returned to the game by specific effects.
Unless stated otherwise, banished dice can be taken from any area.
Universal Heroes
Heroes marked with a universal-hero icon are universal heroes and can be used in any 20 Strong deck for a new gameplay experience.
The gameplay of 20 Strong varies significantly from deck to deck, so universal heroes may not always be as finely tuned to a different deck's play style. Have fun with them and discover the toughest or most rewarding pairings across the line!
In Nemesis, the Queen is considered a boss for the purposes of any universal hero ability that refers to "non-boss enemies."
Difficulty Rankings
The number of objective points a player needs to win depends on the difficulty rank.
- Rank 1: Earn 7+ objective points.
- Rank 2: Earn 8+ objective points.
- Rank 3: Earn 9+ objective points.
- Rank 4: Earn 9+ objective points. You cannot look at your two objective cards until you escape the ship, are defeated, or the Self-Destruct Sequence initiates.
For your first game, we recommend not playing with objective cards. Instead, simply try to escape before you are defeated.
Credits
Game Design & Development: Josh Carlson, Logan Giannini, Ryan Howard, Elizabeth Johnson McFarlin, & Salem Scott
Illustration: Piotr Foksowicz, Patryk Jędraszek, Ewa Labak, & Andrzej Półtoranos
Graphic Design: Moriah Gorman & Melonie Lavely
Rulebook: Devon Norris
Editing: Elizabeth Johnson McFarlin & Shannon Wedge
Based on the board game Nemesis, published by Awaken Realms and designed by Adam Kwapinski.